Ebix, an Atlanta-based software firm recently said it is acquiring Yatra.com, an Indian online travel agency and search engine through a merger deal at about $337 million. Ebix is looking to foster its presence in the South Asia’s hotel and flight ticketing market.
With this deal, Yatra.com would become part of Ebix’s travel portfolio, which also includes the likes of Via.com, however it would continue to serve the customers under the Yatra brand.
This acquisition is expected to make the competition stiffer for the online Indian travel companies, especially MakeMyTrip, a local player that currently leads the market.
Ebix is a leading international supplier of On-demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance, e-learning and tourism industries, and has amassed over 8,000 corporate clients.
This move would help Ebix leverage Yatra’s large and loyal existing customer base in India. Yatra’s shares were up over 17% following today’s announcement in pre-market trading.
Owing to Union Government’s push towards absolute digitization and growth of internet services due to low-tariffs, online tourism industry has been flourishing. With online platforms currently accounting for 45% of all the transactions, investments like these are bound to complement the industry.
The companies said their board of directors have unanimously approved the deal and they expect to close it by the fourth quarter of this year.
In a statement, Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder and CEO of Yatra, said, given Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio, this merger would help us both provide better and enhanced experience for our joint customers. Our partnership with Airline, hotel, car rental, all the businesses that we work with, will grow more.
He further added that it would capture good growth opportunities and deliver enhanced value to shareholders.
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